low energy or drive

I am having difficulty motivating myself. I work all day, and when I get home, I just want to eat, and then watch tv. It is miserable outside, and I was using my stationary bike in the beginning, but have lost interest. I need to find a reason to keep moving in the right direction. any help?

What's your personal reason for wanting to eat differently? Is the right direction toward... Improved looks? Improved functionality of your body? Increased health? Avoiding/delaying some genetic disease? For sure, that reason has to be stronger than your evening exhaustion (which is normal and reasonable--don't beat yourself up for it!) Make sure you say that, read that, and write that to yourself every day.

What I did at the beginning when I was working a lot was to buy inexpensive frozen dinners, (for me, lower calorie and low fat). I saved the plastic containers and for a month, I pre-made my own meals on shopping day when I had time and energy, put the containers into a large zipper bag, froze 5, left 2 in the fridge, and it was a matter of minutes or seconds to eat dinner the rest of the week.

I still pre-bag snacks. Pretzels are on my plan, so I count out 28 little pretzels and put them in zipper bags, then put the bags into a larger container. I can grab one per evening, and it doesn't take any thought, and there's no risk of overeating. I also pre-slice two tomatoes on shopping day and put them in a plastic container so I can grab one or two for sandwich, snack, appetizer. If I do that with a pepper and dump baby carrots into a third clear container and leave them on the top shelf of the fridge, if I open it, they are the first thing I see. Very pretty and appetizing arrayed like that, too.

Do your exercise in the morning or at noon when you're higher energy.

We all have to figure out our own schedules and energy levels, and then the trick is to do the planning/prepping/exercising when we do have energy so at low-energy times, it's all a no-brainer.

I get bored with the same exercise after a while, so I have to switch it up. I use DVD's and there are so many out there to choose from, whether you buy a system like P90X or just get some different ones from Wal-Mart, it helps keep me going. Also, I work all day too and find that trying to workout after work is almost impossible, because not only am I tired and usually hungry, there are just days that you are super busy. So, I started getting up early and getting a workout in. It took a few weeks of making myself wake up early for it to become a habit and then I was finding myself waking up right before the alarm and it is a good start to the day. You just have to get that exercise to fit somewhere in your daily routine and then it becomes a part of ever day and it feels like something is missing when you don't do it. You'll figure out what works best for you, just give it some time and try some different things.

Goals for 2015:Start a running programSign up & complete a 5K- DoneGet a bike and use it!

I have to say that I've been having really low energy lately too and having trouble keeping myself motivated. A big change in my workout routine was exactly what I needed. I set a goal for myself that I normally would never have wanted to do... which was, start training to run, and eventually training to run a 5K. So, I went out and got a treadmill. Before that, I was working out with my Wii. Initially, I lost all my weight (like 40lbs!) using my Wii EA Active workouts... but after doing that for over a year, even all three games, I was SUPER bored. Nothing on there motivated me. I bought a Jillian Michaels DVD - did it a few times, wasn't doin' it for me. Bought Zumba. Bought a bunch of other stuff that just did not keep my motivation up...

But setting the goal and getting the treadmill, that has worked strong so far for 2 weeks and I'm looking forward to continuing. Maybe you just need a radical change or a "grand goal" that you can set for yourself to change up your workout!

Not too far out for me, although I had to put that I was sedentary to get it right. It came out at 1400, and I would lose weight very slowly at that, but am mostly trying to do about 90% of RDI to lose ...

Yes Steel cut oats. They take longer to cook but are so worth it! Add a tablespoon of peanut butter and some berries for a protein boost and great flavour. You can also add a table spoon of maple syrup ...